Cynthia Sterling Recall Effort

Monday July 28th a group of residents led by the Reverend Floyd Harris walked into the county clerk's office with a notice of intent to recall Cynthia Sterling. There are over 20 signatures on it. The reason to recall? It states "We have lost all confidence in your ability to serve."Lula Tucker, a concerned resident said councilmember Cynthia Sterling isn't doing a good enough job listening to the concerns of her constituents. Tucker and the citizen's group called "Community Voices for Fair Representatives" have launched an effort to recall sterling.

Tucker said: "Right now we're at a point where we're just saying, "Hey, it's time to recall her. It's enough." Enough's enough. The community's more upset than anything."

Tucker claimed the city's crackdown on gangs has taken criminals off the street but has done little to improve life on Fresno's west side. Tucker's group also says sterling didn't listen to concerns over changes made the to Frank H. Ball community center.

"And when you don't feel like you're part of somebody or somebody's a part of you you don't respect them or listen to them," said Tucker.

County clerk Victor Salazar said the recall process is often lengthy and difficult especially, the more than 4000 signatures required to get the recall onto the ballot.

Salazar said: "But that means they're gonna have to submit 6-thousand signatures because if you're out collecting signatures and you ask somebody, "are you a registered voter?" will you sign this. You don't know if they are or not but we have to verify that."

Cynthia Sterling was unavailable for an interview but issued this statement saying, "Although I have not received any official notification on this effort i can say that serving the needs of the most diverse council district is never ending. I have worked hard and will keep on working hard to make the district better until my term ends" Still Tucker said she's confident this recall drive will be successful. "That'll be easy. That'll be easy. Cause we're part of the community."

The group pushing this petition will have to wait for the clerk's office to approve the request. If it goes through, after that, they will have 120 days to gather the necessary signatures.